53P/Van Biesbroeck (0053P)

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Type: Periodic Perihelion date: 30 April 2016 Perihelion distance (q): 2.4 Aphelion distance (Q) : 8.4 Period (years): 12.6 Eccentricity (e): 0.55 Inclination (i): 6.6 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve During an unsuccessful attempt to recover the asteroid 1953 GC, George van Biesbroeck (Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin, USA) discovered this comet on a 16- minute exposure obtained with the 24-inch reflector on 1 September 1954. He estimated the magnitude as 14.5, and described the comet as round, well condensed, and 8 arc seconds across. Stan Milbourn and George Lea calculated the best recovery orbit, and the comet was recovered in May 1965. Back calculating the orbit shows that it made a moderately close approach to Jupiter in 1850, which reduced q from 2.7 to 2.4 au and reversed the nodes. The pre 1850 orbit is like that of 42P/Neujmin 3 and it is likely that they are fragments of the same parent. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 16-Feb-15 18.55 0.39 17.7 0.2 01-Mar-15 18.16 0.12 17.5 0.2 11-Mar-15 17.87 0.11 16.1 0.2 18-Mar-15 17.93 0.03 17.8 0.2 08-Apr-15 17.21 0.17 15.0 0.2 15-Apr-15 17.48 0.04 17.1 0.2 22-Apr-15 17.62 0.05 17.5 0.2 22-May-15 17.31 0.11 16.5 0.2 10-Jun-15 17.47 0.15 17.0 0.2 20-Jun-15 17.41 0.12 17.2 0.2 05-Jul-15 17.39 0.12 16.8 0.2 20-Jul-15 17.43 0.09 17.3 0.2 17-May-16 15.35 0.12 12.3 0.5 31-May-16 15.40 0.02 13.6 0.6 11-Jul-16 14.83 0.01 13.0 0.8 23-Aug-16 14.93 0.01 13.0 0.6 30-Aug-16 15.00 0.03 12.8 0.9 06-Sep-16 15.27 0.01 13.4 0.7 19-Sep-16 15.62 0.01 13.6 0.5 30-Sep-16 15.78 0.01 13.7 0.5 28-Oct-16 16.30 0.01 14.1 0.2 24-Nov-16 16.71 0.01 15.1 0.3 27-Dec-16 17.05 0.07 14.8 0.3 08-Jan-17 17.29 0.22 15.7 0.2 31-Jul-17 18.83 0.09 17.8 0.2